"While we have been reluctant to make public comments during the recount period, the Kloppenburg campaign's attack on the votes of 18 nuns from the Valley of our Lady Monastery in Prairie du Sac is wrong at best and totally reprehensible at worst.

"This recount is costing Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars already. There is to date not one shred of evidence whatsoever that it will change the outcome of the election. To make this extremely costly and sorry spectacle even worse by challenging the legitimate votes of 18 nuns at a monastery is a breathtaking abuse of the recount process."

"I would simply ask Ms. Kloppenburg to act at the most basic level of decency; apologize to the 18 nuns who reside at the monastery for her campaign's interference with their right to vote, withdraw her objection and ask that the ballots be reinstated."

The City of Brookfield's recount of its state Supreme Court race votes started Thursday with an objection to opening and counting the first six ballot bags because they were not completely cinched at the top, leaving an open gap.

Bill Hotz, a representative for JoAnne Kloppenburg's campaign, objected to opening the bags, saying there was no way to know if they were secure and untampered. Brandon O'Bryon, from the campaign for incumbent Justice David Prosser, said they should be opened. He cited testimony from Brookfield City Clerk Kristine Schmidt about the protective custody her office takes of ballot bags after the election.

Schmidt said the bags were heavy with the ballots from Wards 1, 2 and 3, which places strain on the plastic bags, causing tears and a gap at their opening, which is sealed with a red security tie.

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